Body and Frames of War in New Kingdom Egypt
Violent Treatment of Enemies and Prisoners
by Uros Matic
Body and Frames of War in New Kingdom Egypt deals with the relation between violence and the bodies of enemies and prisoners of war in New Kingdom Egypt (ca. 1550/1070 BC) through the lens of “frames of war” (J. Butler). Archaeological, textual and pictorial sources on military violence (torture, mutilation, execution) are examined with various methods. Numerous attestations of caging, branding and marking, cutting off hands, cutting off phalli, cutting off ears, eyes gouging, strangling, burning, impaling and decapitation of enemies are analysed in detail and compared with treatments of the dead in the Underworld and criminals in ancient Egypt. Uros Matic for the first time comprehensively compares divine and state violence in ancient Egypt. He discusses evidence from physical-anthropology (skeletal remains) and chooses a constructivist approach to textual and pictorial representations of violence. Bodies of enemies are understood as objects and media of violence. Several theoretical models are consulted in the examination of the material. It is argued that there was a difference in violent acts committed by the king and those committed by the soldiers. The king treats the enemies in the same way as deities and demons treat the dead in the Underworld. The violence committed by soldiers, on the other hand, is mundane and has no religious background. This difference strengthened the divine nature of the king.
Body and Frames of War in New Kingdom Egypt deals with the relation between violence and the bodies of enemies and prisoners of war in New Kingdom Egypt (ca. 1550/1070 BC) through the lens of “frames of war” (J. Butler). Archaeological, textual and pictorial sources on military violence (torture, mutilation, execution) are examined with various methods. Numerous attestations of caging, branding and marking, cutting off hands, cutting off phalli, cutting off ears, eyes gouging, strangling, burning, impaling and decapitation of enemies are analysed in detail and compared with treatments of the dead in the Underworld and criminals in ancient Egypt. Uros Matic for the first time comprehensively compares divine and state violence in ancient Egypt. He discusses evidence from physical-anthropology (skeletal remains) and chooses a constructivist approach to textual and pictorial representations of violence. Bodies of enemies are understood as objects and media of violence. Several theoretical models are consulted in the examination of the material. It is argued that there was a difference in violent acts committed by the king and those committed by the soldiers. The king treats the enemies in the same way as deities and demons treat the dead in the Underworld. The violence committed by soldiers, on the other hand, is mundane and has no religious background. This difference strengthened the divine nature of the king.
- By (author) Uros Matic
Other Titles in this Series
Die Waffengraber der agaischen Bronzezeit
Waffenbeigaben, soziale Selbstdarstellung und Adelsethos in der minoisch-mykenischen Kultur
Volume 52
Musik als Argument spatantiker Kirchenvater
Untersuchungen zu Laktanz, Euseb, Chrysostomos und Augustinus
Die Personennamen des Alten Reiches
Altagyptische Onomastik unter lexikographischen und sozio-kulturellen Aspekten
Volume 28
Mensch und Umwelt im Spiegel der Zeit
Aspekte geoarchaologischer Forschungen im ostlichen Mittelmeer
Volume 1
Teichos
Vom endneolithischen Wehrdorf zum spatosmanischen Tambouri: 5000 Jahre Festungswesen in Attika
Volume 151
Zwischen Entwurf und Produkt
Die griechisch-romischen Gipsformen aus Agypten im Museum August Kestner, Hannover. Mit einer CD-Rom der abgebildeten Museumsobjekte
Volume 44
Attika – Archaologie einer ‘zentralen’ Kulturlandschaft
Akten der internationalen Tagung vom 18.-20. Mai 2007 in Marburg
Volume 37
Change, Continuity, and Connectivity
North-Eastern Mediterranean at the turn of the Bronze Age and in the early Iron Age
The Letter
Law, State, Society and the Epistolary Format in the Ancient World Proceedings of a Colloquium held at the American Academy in Rome 28-30.9.2008
Volume 55.1
Sie machen sich keinen Begriff von den Reizen solcher Nilfahrt
Der Briefwechsel zwischen Georg Ebers und Franz Overbeck (1867-1898)
Volume 56
Kathegetes
Studies in Ancient History, Warfare and Art Presented to Nick Sekunda on his Seventieth Birthday
Volume 171
Von besten und zweitbesten Regeln
Platonische und aktuelle Perspektiven auf individuelles und staatliches Wohlergehen
Feuer und Stein
Graber und Totenmonumente im eisenzeitlichen Nordsyrien und Sudostanatolien in ihren regionalen Kontexten
Volume 145
Jugendlichkeit im klassischen Athen
Die Altersstufen und das Phanomen der 'Verjungung' bei Gottern, Heroen und Menschen
Volume 94
Agypten zwischen innerem Zwist und ausserem Druck
Die Zeit Ptolemaios' VI. bis VIII. Internationales Symposion Heidelberg 16.-19. 9. 2007
Volume 45
Similar Books
The Western Nile Delta
ARCE Fieldwork in the Region of Kom Firin and Naukratis (1977-1983) Revisited
Archaeological Discoveries at the Temple of Ramesses II in Abydos
Vol. 2: Old Kingdom Wall, Papyri, Ostraca, and Leather Remains
The Southern Room of Amun in the Temple of Hatshepsut
Volume 2: Studies on Decoration and Ritual Function
Volume 11
Die Ägyptenworte im Ezechielbuch
Eine literarhistorische und religionsgeschichtliche Analyse von Ez 29–32
Du côté de chez Zeus
Fouilles de la Mission archéologique française du désert Oriental à Abû Qurayya (Dios) et Bi’r Bayza (y inclus O.Dios I 1-67)
Volume 98
La littérature de l’Égypte ancienne. Volume V
Nouvel Empire : XVIIIe dynastie. Eulogies et narrations royales, contes, enseignements et littérature d’idée
Lehrreiche Literatur
Die didaktische Gestaltung von Plutarchs Quaestiones Graecae und Romanae und Gellius' Noctes Atticae
Nouvelles perspectives sur le Traité anonyme du Codex Bruce. New Perspectives on the Untitled Treatise of the Bruce Codex
(Colloque international, Québec, Université Laval, 13 avril 2018)
Volume 11
Ägypten und Levante XXXIV / Egypt and the Levant XXXIV (2024)
Internationale Zeitschrift für ägyptische Archäologie und deren Nachbargebiete / International Journal for Egyptian Archaeology and Related Disciplines
Ancient Egypt in 50 Discoveries
Highlights from the first century of the Egypt Exploration Society
Volume 8
Archaeological Discoveries at the Temple of Ramesses II in Abydos
Vol. 1: Magazines, Animal Burials, and Miscellanea
Building an 18th Dynasty Tomb at Thebes
Construction Records from Mery's Funerary Complex (TT 95) in Context
Volume 4
Current Research in Egyptology 2024
Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Symposium, Jointly Organised by the University of Liverpool, Swansea University, University of Birmingham, University of Oxford, and University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2–6 September 2024
From Egypt to the Levant and Beyond
African Individuals and Groupsain Cuneiform Texts from the Late Bronze Age
Volume 133
Kom al-Ahmer — Kom Wasit III
The Archaeology of Two Ptolemaic Districts in the Western Nile Delta, Egypt